Page 45 of Knox's Mission

“That’s a big change,” he said.

“Where in Yellowstone do you live?” she asked.

It was more than headquarters now. It was home. “I have a cabin in the mountains. It’s not much but has everything I need.”

“WiFi?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “There’s a cell tower nearby.”

She nodded and shot him a look. “Cabin for one sounds like your speed.” She smiled. Smirked was more like it.

“For your information, it’s built for two, but can fit three if necessary,” he snapped back, enjoying the break in tension once again. Joking around, keeping spirits up was half the battle.

“A threesome also sounds right up your alley,” Amy shot back without hesitation.

“I was thinking more like a crib, but that works too,” he retorted.

“You and a family?” she asked, shocked. The depth to her surprise stabbed him in the chest.

“Someday,” he said.

Amy shrugged. “I didn’t think you were the settling down type.”

“I wasn’t,” he defended. “Things change.”

Amy paused as though letting that sink in. “Hey, off topic but why was my brother nicknamed Bi-Lo?”

Knox laughed at the mention. Talking about Garrett was surprisingly good for the soul. Knox had avoided the topic for the past year, mistakenly thinking it would be too hard.

“If you know about Bi-Lo, then you must have heard about me being called Sell-High,” he said.

Her face wrinkled. “Nope. Do tell.”

“Your brother shows up to the first day of Ranger school sporting one of those grocery club cards. The kind that gives you a discount for being loyal,” Knox said. “Suffice it to say most young dudes aren’t exactly thinking about getting a discount on toilet paper. So, they started calling him Bi-Lo. Since the two of us were inseparable, I picked up the name Sell-High by association.”

Amy laughed. That was the thing about her. Growing up with a brother, she understood the humor. She instinctively knew how much Garrett would shake his head whenever he was called by that name and had to explain the reason.

Were they all immature back then? Hell yes. They’d been young and full of piss and vinegar,pushing the limits of their minds and bodies. Now, the nicknames made Knox smile.

“Some had it worse than us,” he added.

“Oh, I can imagine the teasing that would happen when throwing a group of like-minded individuals together all at the same maturity level,” Amy said.

“We gave each other a hard time but it was all good fun,” he said. “No harm was meant, even though Bi-Lo wasn’t exactly a chick-magnet nickname.”

“That would end a lot of first dates,” she said on another laugh. The sound was music to his ears, as good as slow jazz on a rainy night.

Now he was waxing poetic. The jungle did that to him. Had him remembering all the things about being back home that he took for granted. The crash, rehab, had given him a new perspective too. One that made him realize life could be taken in an instant. The whole world could change in a second—that was all it took to twist the world on its axis. The crash had also taken too much from him.

Knox didn’t want to think about that right now.

Circling back to the family conversation, Amy was right about one thing. He hadn’t thought about having one until now. The idea was growing on him if he could find someone easy to talk to, like her. Someone he couldn’t wait to come home to, like her.And someone he wanted to spend a whole day in bed with, like her.

So, basically, he needed to find another Amy.

She was rare, though. Special. The mold was broken after she was born, he was certain of that.

Could he find someone who reminded him of her? Or could he come clean with her and see where the cards landed?

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